The Sims (2000) — Technical Documentation

Comprehensive technical reference for The Sims file formats, resource structures, and modding workflows.

---

📖 Documentation Structure

Part	Title	Content
I. Foundations	Architecture & Concepts	Overview, conventions, getting started
II. Containers	File Formats	FAR archives, IFF structure, preferences
III. Object System	Objects & Behaviors	OBJD, BHAV, VM, interactions
IV. Graphics & Animation	Rendering	Sprites, meshes, animation system
V. Game Content	Data Structures	Characters, careers, strings
VI. Tools & Workflows	Practical Guides	IFFSnooper tutorials

---

🎯 Quick Navigation

By Task

I want to...	Go to...
Understand the architecture	Part I Ch.2
Parse a FAR archive	Part II Ch.1
Parse an IFF file	Part II Ch.2
Understand object structure	Part III Ch.1
Learn BHAV bytecode	Part III Ch.3
Work with sprites	Part IV Ch.2
Parse meshes	Part IV Ch.5
Understand animations	Part IV Ch.4
Edit characters	Part V Ch.1
Edit careers	Part V Ch.2
Use IFFSnooper	Part VI

By Format

Format	Location
FAR	Part II Ch.1
IFF	Part II Ch.2
OBJD	Part III Ch.1
BHAV	Part III Ch.3
BCON/TRCN	Part III Ch.4
TTAB	Part III Ch.6
SLOT	Part III Ch.8
DGRP	Part IV Ch.1
SPR#/SPR2	Part IV Ch.2
PALT	Part IV Ch.3
CMX/BCF	Part IV Ch.4
SKN/BMF	Part IV Ch.5
CFP	Part IV Ch.6
CARR	Part V Ch.2
STR#	Part V Ch.3
FCNS	Part V Ch.4

---

📊 Overview

Game: The Sims (Maxis/EA, 2000)
Primary Container: IFF (Interchange File Format)
Archive Format: FAR (File ARchive)
Byte Order: Big-endian headers, little-endian content

Key Concepts

• Objects are defined by OBJD resources and use BHAV bytecode for behaviors
• Graphics use isometric sprites (SPR2) positioned by DGRP resources
• Characters are defined by CMX/BCF (skeletons/animations) and SKN/BMF (meshes)
• Careers are encoded in CARR resources with bit-packed variable-width fields

---

📝 Conventions

Convention	Meaning
0x prefix	Hexadecimal
BE	Big-endian
LE	Little-endian
Fields	Listed offset → size → name

---

🔗 External Resources

• IFFSnooper — Peter Gould's research tool
• 7DS Archive — Community documentation (archived)
• Niotso/FreeSO — Open source reimplementation

---

Documentation v1.1 — February 2026. Original sources credited within individual chapters.